


Close Enough To Perfect

by sailorchiron



Series: And the Reason is You [7]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, First Crush, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-27 01:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20752328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailorchiron/pseuds/sailorchiron
Summary: Michael Guerin Week Day 6 - pre-canon





	Close Enough To Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> Day 6, just a whole day late! This is pre-canon for my college AU, the same universe as all the other fics I've posted for Guerin Week. Enjoy! Please note the OG Roswell reference. ;)

Michael was standing at his locker, just looking around, getting his books for first and second period, hanging up his bag. Y’know, normal, before school stuff. Checking the hall for people that might be assholes, trying to avoid any fights, since he always got blamed for them. It was chilly in the hall, drafty from the open doors, and the air currents ruffled his hair. It looked pretty good right now. Lisa, his foster mom, had gotten him a real haircut and shampoo and conditioner for curly hair, and he didn’t mind looking at himself in the mirror. Not that he’d ever really felt like he was ugly, and the female companionship he’d enjoyed implied that the was attractive, but he felt kinda confident when he saw his reflection. Which was great.

Because Ryan Arriaga kept looking at him, and he’d decided that he wanted to keep those eyes on him.

He felt butterflies in his stomach just thinking about the other boy. They had two classes together, Spanish 2 and culinary arts, and they’d talked to each other a couple times. Ryan already spoke Spanish and offered to help him with his work; they’d tentatively agreed to work together for this week’s culinary project. He tried to stop smiling, but couldn’t. 

Michael had never had a crush like this on a guy before, and had had a pretty good freak out when he recognized what he was feeling the first week of school. He’d decided, tentatively, that he could accept that he was bisexual...and then remembered that, to the best of his knowledge, he wasn’t even fucking human, so why should he stress about the percieved binary sexuality that Americans were so fucking obsessed with? He knew he probably needed to keep that fact that he was into dudes to himself, since his current ‘home’ was pretty religious, and he didn’t want to get kicked out. But feel like there was something wrong with him? For all new knew, everyone from his planet was bisexual, and humans were freaks. Of course, even with that decision made, he still felt off balance sometimes, but forced himself to get over it when it happened.

“Hey Michael.”

He realized he’d completely zoned out and missed that Ryan had gotten to school and was now standing in front of him. He smiled so hard his face kinda hurt. “Hi.”

Ryan was a tall guy, and had won the genetic lottery of his mixed Latino, Basque, and Native American heritage. He was a senior and Michael wasn’t sure what had inspired him to talk to a sophomore in his Spanish 2 class, and had to assume it was because the other boy thought he was cute. _At least, I hope he thinks I’m cute._

“Did you study for the Spanish quiz?” Ryan was only taking Spanish to learn to read and write, he’d grown up speaking Spanish. 

Michael nodded. “I know the material, but studied anyway.”

“Your Spanish is really good, you almost don’t need the class. You could probably have tested out of your foreign language requirements.”

“I’m not _that_ gifted,” Michael laughed, sure he was showing Ryan heart eyes like in a cartoon. “But it’s impossible_ not_ to learn Spanish living in New Mexico.”

The bell rang, and they started walking together. Both of them had math first, Ryan calculus and Michael algebra 2, and they were on the same hall. “I don’t know, most white people still don’t speak Spanish _well_, even if they understand some of it. You’re at least somewhat gifted.”

“Thanks,” he answered, sure he was blushing hard enough to glow. 

They’d arrived at their classes and they stopped to the side of the hallway. “See you in Spanish?” Ryan asked, even though there was no chance they wouldn’t.

“Yah.” Michael couldn’t stop looking at him. He watched Ryan reach out and nearly died when he squeezed his shoulder. 

“See you then.” He went into his classroom, but Michael just kinda stared for a minute before the bell reminded him that he had a class to get to himself. 

He was kinda distracted, but math came as easy as breathing, and didn’t really have to pay much attention to the lesson. His next class was honors chemistry, and he paid more attention to that since they had a big test on Friday, and the experiment they were setting up for tomorrow was important. All of his classes were honors classes; he’d decided not to take AP classes because his counselor had told him that a 4.0 in regular classes looked a lot better on a college application than a 3.0 with AP classes. It was less work, and was going to pay off in the end. He figured he wouldn’t have been able to pay to take the AP tests anyway. 

Third period, though...was Spanish.

He and Ryan sat at the same table with two girls that were just as good at the language as they were, and the four of them were natural-born show-offs, and spoke Spanish to each other as much as possible. Sometimes Ryan would teach them the Basque he knew from his grandmother, and it made him more attractive to all three of them. He’d never flirted with Brianna or Cynthia, and that made Michael _very_ happy. 

“Ready for the quiz?”

Michael smiled up at Ryan when he sat down. “Yah, it’ll be easy.”

“Probably.” 

The quiz was easy, as predicted. The lecture was interesting, but Michael was distracted by the gorgeous guy sitting next to him. He was taking notes, but wasn’t sure they would make sense later. And then it happened.

Ryan’s hand brushed his thigh, then settled on it for a moment before he moved away. _I am going to die._ How the hell was Michael supposed to concentrate on past perfect tense now? Something else was far more important. He had to make sure Ryan knew he liked it. Michael turned his head to the side just a little and smiled slowly. Ryan smiled back, and squeezed his leg before putting his hand back on the table. Feeling incredibly impulsive and silly, Michael leaned over and drew the tiniest of hearts in the margin of Ryan’s notes. He heard a soft chuckle in response.

Class ended too soon but also not soon enough. In the hall, Michael and Ryan just looked at each other for a minute, smiling like idiots, before Michael reached over and took Ryan’s hand, squeezing it. “See you at lunch?”

“Yah, I’ll meet you at your locker.”

Brianna came up beside Michael as Ryan walked off to his next class. “Are you dating Ryan?” She sounded incredulous.

“I hope so.”

Language arts was pure torture, and Michael was a mess of fidgeting and checking the clock. 52 minutes had never passed so slowly. Never. When the bell rang, he was out of his seat faster than a sprinter off the starting block at the Olympics.

Ryan was waiting at his locker, and he thought his heart might pound out of his chest. “Hi.”

“Hi.” They got stuck looking at each other for at least 30 seconds. “Put your books up,” Ryan instructed with a soft laugh. “Let’s go find somewhere to sit.”

Neither of them were especially hungry, but got lunch anyway so they wouldn’t just stare at each other and giggle like middle school girls. Michael had no idea was it was, he ate it without really tasting it. They talked before, but now they both had more to say, and lunch was too short. 

“Can I hold your hand?”

Michael’s eyes widened, and he smiled, surprised. “Yah.” They walked slowly back to their lockers, completely uninterested in their 5th period classes. 

“I have to go or I’ll be late.” Ryan’s locker was close to his next class, but a hall over from Michael’s. 

“Okay, yah. See you in culinary.”

“Would you be okay with a hug in front of everyone?”

He nodded, breathless. “Yah.”

It was the best hug ever. 

Brianna was in Michael’s 5th period PE class. “I think it’s safe to say I’m dating Ryan,” Michael told her, unable to stop smiling. 

He was excited to go to culinary arts, and hoped he wasn’t too sweaty. Worst thing about having PE in the middle of the day. He was sitting on his stool at the prep table when Ryan sat down next to him. “Hi.” He didn’t know how Ryan would react, but he offered him his hand. He immediately took it, lacing their fingers together. They left their intertwined hands on the table top while they went over the prep instructions for the carrot and ginger soup with brioche toast they were making. Ryan whispered in his ear that it sounded absolutely disgusting, and Michael definitely had to agree. Gross. 

It was definitely gross. But it was fun to laugh about it with someone that he figured was probably his boyfriend. That was an absolutely terrifying thought in the same way a roller coaster was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. He had a _boyfriend._ Michael Guerin, social outcast, had a boyfriend and he was one of the hottest guys in the entire school.

Michael was reluctant to go off to world history, and Ryan seemed reluctant to walk away as well. Unfortunately, their classes were in opposite directions. “See you after school?”

Ryan smiled. “I’ll meet you at your locker.” They squeezed each other’s hands and headed to class.

History was worse than language arts. Michael didn’t give a fuck about human history. He still got perfect test scores and did all the homework, but it was the least interesting thing he could think of, especially when the end of the period meant that he got to see Ryan. He just barely managed to survive until 3:16. 

He’d put his homework in his backpack and closed his locker when Ryan came up to him. Michael initiated a hug this time, and was so content in those warm arms. He’d never hugged someone taller than him, at least not romantically, and it was a nice feeling. He pulled away before it could get awkward. “Do you have anywhere to be right now?”

The other boy shook his head. “No, I just have to be home by 5:30 for dinner. You?”

“No, just have to be home around 5.”

“If you want to hang out, I’ll drive you home.”

“Yah, that’d be great.”

They ended up at the park three blocks from school, and they took over the swings before any little kids could claim them. They were both too tall, and just sort of twisted around on them, laughing, talking about school and things they liked and Ryan’s family. It was 4:45 before they knew it, and got up from the swings with a sigh.

“Hey,” Ryan started softly. “Am I right that you don’t want your family to know?”

Michael nodded, relieved that he’d picked up on that. “Yah, this family is pretty religious, but they’re kinda nice, I really don’t want to get kicked out.”

Ryan took his hand. “Then is it okay if I kiss you here?”

“Oh, yah, I mean, yes, please, by all means.” He smiled when the other boy chuckled. “I’ve never kissed a boy before.”

“Cool, I was kinda hoping I’d be the first.” He cupped Michael’s cheek and leaned down to press a very soft, chaste kiss to his smiling lips. “Okay?”

“I’ll be okay if you kiss me again.” That wasn’t nearly enough.

“Really? I definitely want you to be okay.” 

They kissed for a few moments, still fairly innocent, but they were in a public park after all. There was definitely chemistry there, though, and Michael couldn’t wait for a chance to be alone. 

They held hands on the drive home, Michael teasing Ryan about his _terrible_ taste in music and Ryan failing to defend himself. 80s country? Really? It was a travesty. They were at Michael’s foster home too soon and just kind of looked at each other for a minute. 

“I really wish I could kiss you again.”

Michael smiled, heart full to bursting. “I wish you could too. Tomorrow morning?”

“That sounds like the perfect way to prepare for calculus.”

Michael almost floated into the house, and was glad Lisa and Hank weren’t home yet, because it would be impossible to hide the level of happiness he was currently feeling, and was sure he’d blurt out that he had a boyfriend. By the time his foster parents were home, Michael was deep into his homework, and his earlier elation was thoroughly crushed. But he took a break after dinner to check his email, and saw that he had an email from Ryan. He’d forgotten that they’d exchanged addresses at the beginning of the school year. Michael looked around to make sure no one was behind him, and he opened it.

_Hey Michael,_

_It was nice to hang out with you this afternoon. I enjoyed talking to you and stuff. I’m attempting to make this email as neutral as possible. Is it working? _

_Your friend,  
Ryan_

Michael cracked up. 

_Hey Ryan,_

_Yah, totally neutral. I’m also making this email as bland as possible. It was cool to see you. Thanks for the ride home. _

_Sincerely,  
Michael _

He’d finished his algebra when he got another email.

_Dear Michael,_

_Here’s another boring email. I attached my Spanish notes for you._

_Your friend,  
Ryan _

Michael looked around again. He could hear Lisa doing dishes and Hank was yelling at the TV. Football inspired so much misplaced passion. He opened the attached picture.

It was a picture of the tiny heart he’d drawn on Ryan’s Spanish notes, but he’d circled it and drawn another one. _This one is for me._ Michael tried desperately to think of a way that he could respond that wouldn’t be immediately incriminating.

_Dear Ryan,_

_Less than three._

_Sincerely,  
Michael _

Michael smiled, logged out of his email, cleared the browsing history on the computer, and restarted it for when the other kids got home from whatever sports thing they were at. He went to bed still feeling arms around him, and allowed himself a little happiness and hope to carry him off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Stay tuned for day 7!


End file.
